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Walmart’s chief technology officer, Jeremy King, is leaving the company, according to a memo obtained by CNBC.
Amazon. Of late, Walmart is billing itself as a technology company, and not just a retailer, but it has struggled to rebrand itself as more consumers are flocking to the web and mobile to purchase goods ranging from clothing to medicines.
“People all have their own perceptions of Walmart,” King told CNBC, ahead of a recent panel at the SXSW conference, about his role leading Walmart Labs, the retailer’s technology arm. “For years now … I’ve wanted people to understand we are building a tech organization,” he said. “I’ve got a machine learning team. We have some of the best apps in the world.”
King hasn’t announced his next role, but the memo did state that he’ll be starting a “new adventure” soon. It also notes that Fiona Tan, currently the senior vice president of customer technology, will be stepping up into an “elevated role.”
King’s last day with the company is May 29.
Walmart declined to comment beyond the memo.
Read the full memo here:
After nearly eight years and significant contributions across Walmart, Jeremy King, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer – Walmart U.S. and U.S. eCommerce, has decided to leave the company for a new adventure.
Jeremy joined Walmart during the inception of “a startup within the world’s largest company” – now known as Walmart Labs, an important enabler for our business. Ever since then, he’s had a laser focus on building capabilities that empower our associates and better serve our customers.
During his first few years at Walmart, he built out an engineering and product organization focused on reimagining the platform for our eCommerce engine, while also leading Walmart Labs through 10+ acquisitions, the opening of four new tech offices and, establishing the organization as a user of, and contributor to, the open source community. The operational decisions made during that time were key to the success of our technology team and led to more agile ways of working, transparent toolsets, product-focused roadmaps and a robust patent program.
Over the last two years, Jeremy’s role expanded as we evolved Walmart Labs to not only power our U.S. eCommerce platform, but also our U.S. stores. He encouraged true omnichannel thinking and created a unified team of technologists, each focused on one customer. During Jeremy’s tenure, we created important technology partnerships with Microsoft, Google, NVIDIA and others that will help carry our digital transformation well into the future.
Jeremy also championed a strong culture at Walmart. He motivated his teams – especially when it came to balancing technical expertise with empathy and people skills – and promoted diversity and inclusion within Walmart and the tech industry. Jeremy helped build and strengthen relationships with organizations like Grace Hopper, Girls Who Code and Path Forward.
While Jeremy will be missed, he leaves us with an outstanding leadership team and organization well-positioned to advance Walmart’s strategic priorities seamlessly and with excellence. We wish him the very best in the next phase of his journey.
Jeremy’s last day with Walmart will be March 29. While we look for his replacement, we’ve asked Fiona Tan, Senior Vice President of Customer Technology, Walmart Labs to take an elevated role as liaison for technology and Walmart U.S. and U.S. eCommerce leadership. Fiona is a strong leader with comprehensive knowledge of our technology stack. During this transition, all of Jeremy’s directs will continue to lead their teams and report directly to the both of us.
Please join us in thanking Jeremy for his service to Walmart and wishing him well.